By Keith Hickey

The Liverpool midfielder could bypass the regional tournament after he was included in his club's Europa League squad

U.S. youth midfielder Marc Pelosi could miss the upcoming CONCACAF U-20 Championship if the German-born playmaker isn't released by his club, Liverpool.

The U.S. U-20s will begin the group stage of the tournament on Feb. 18, and coach Tab Ramos is looking to add two more players to the already announced group of 18, with the Reds midfielder reportedly first on the list. But with Liverpool having added Pelosi to its Europa League squad, Ramos admitted the 18-year-old could stay on Merseyside.

"Obviously, Marc is a great player," Ramos told reporters on a conference call Friday. "And because of that, he has many other opportunities that maybe not all the players have. I think in this case, with his possible Europa League callup, his release became a little bit more difficult than it otherwise would have been."

At this point, I wouldn't want to say that that's a closed door, but it's something that we may work on that at the end of the day, may not make any sense for Marc. We'll keep working on it for the next couple of days, and we're happy with his development. We feel that Marc is going to be an important player for the national team."

The U.S. will play Haiti and Costa Rica in Group A, with the matches scheduled for Feb. 18 and 22, respectively.